Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Dear Friends,This is Part Two of a Three part blog-journey, where I visit the garden of the internationally famous Bach Flower Remedies, and the last home of Dr Edward Bach who created them.In todays post, we are outdoors in the rustic, untamed garden surrounding the cottage, where some of the actual plants and trees that are used to make the remedies are grown.

Walnut - The link breaker that helps you move forward in times of transition, adjusting to life changes

- helping protect against sensitivity to outside forces and influences.

The sky suddenly clouded over, not unusual for this time of year, serving only to further imbue the silent, still garden with a deeply introspective feel. It was like all the plants and trees were continuing to dream even after the end of the long, cold winter months. Their vital energy pulled inward. Resting, waiting for the tide of new life to begin rising in them again.

Clematis - the fuzzy-headed scatterbrained daydreamer, (just like the plant seed heads) - refocusses attention and connection to the real world of here and now.

Mimulus - for fear of known things and hypersensitivities of all kinds

The gardener showed me another pond, located at the back of the garden, and carefully lifted the plastic covering to show me several species of rare newts hiding there… (I didn't take any photos of them to show you sorry… They are Salamanders, like small black Axolotl-like creatures - some crested with red bands on their tails)

Holly - For anger, jealousy, revengefulness, envy and feelings of hatred and suspicion - opens the heart back up to Love

I must say, it is a wonderful feeling to see these plants and trees, to touch them - the actual ones - here in this garden. To know that their energetic stories and healing help go out from here, to people all over the World.

The Litre-sized bottles used to store the Mother Tincture.

The tinctures themselves are produced by placing pieces of the plant material (usually flowers) in a bowl of distilled water, set out in the sunlight. The suns rays allow the plant to 'discharge' it's subtle innate, energetic wisdom - the vegetal vibrational frequency into the water.

Water as we know, is a wonderful conductor and conduit of energy and storehouse of memories, and used in this way, it holds the vital imprint of the plants code (healing signature) within it.

Science is only very recently (in the last few years) starting to acknowledge and agree with this fact…already known to shamans and herbal healers for thousands of years.

Tuesday, 29 November 2016

Dear friends,I had dreamed of visiting the Bach Centre near Oxford for many years… I first learnt about this beautiful healing modality back in 1994 (in New Zealand) and I started working with and benefiting from the remedies straight away.For those who are unfamiliar with the Bach Flower Remedies, they are 38 individual plant essences that help treat health problems by getting to the root of the emotional cause. They come in little dropper bottles containing the vibrationally charged essence of various plants, trees and flowers (more on this later), utilizing the delicate -yet powerful- and soulful grace of the plant realm. The most commonly known remedy is probably the combination essence "Rescue Remedy" which contains 5 of the individual remedies together, and is used especially to bring calm to traumatic and stressful situations.

And so it was….. on a chill Spring morning in March that I made the journey over to the little cottage in the tiny village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Wallingford - about a 45 - 50 minutes drive south of Oxford. Luckily it was a sunny day with a clear bright blue sky above, as I arrived at the cottage called "Mount Vernon" surrounded by its wildish English garden.

This was the rented home and workplace of Dr. Edward Bach (for those interested, his name is pronounced correctly as Bach, as in Johann Sebastian Bach - as he is of Welsh ancestry, and not Batch - as in *small seaside cottage*) - this quiet and humble man, whose life's work and contribution was to bring these incredible plant treatments to the world.

The sign on the door speaks of those who used to work here.

As you enter the front door, the room directly off to the left is Dr Bach's treatment room where he would see patients.

Dr.Bach's original hand-made furniture is a feature in the room - the sturdy armchairs and desk, the corner where he worked complete with his typewriter and set of treatment bottles.

A wonderful old Grandfather clock lends an atmospheric feel to this room-full-of-memories too...

Please call back here tomorrow, for part two of this three part blog-journey, where I'll show you the rustic garden and some of the actual plants and trees used in the making of the real 'Original' Bach Flower Remedies.Till then...Blessings of Beauty,Cat xo

Monday, 28 November 2016

Dear friends,I've gotten out of the habit of blogging of late, for two reasons really... Firstly because iPhoto on my computer hadn't been working, and so it was making it much more complicated to move images across from my phone for blogging purposes, and also because I've been focussing much more of my energy on my deep healing this year. Really, really going within…and away from the distractions and chaos of the world.

I'd been looking at how art-making heals emotional blocks. How using all sorts of different media in whatever way feels right and good, can help express what words alone just cannot explain. How rest and slowing down had become necessary.

My art took a darker turn, which was in direct reflection to my inner world. There was, and is, much I feel I cannot voice…and so I am looking for other ways to speak. Now I'm circling round once more, figuring out what comes next. Where is my art journey going? What feels light, and fun and joyful?

And in the meanwhile, tomorrow I begin a 3 part series here on my blog sharing my many-years-in-the-making pilgrimage to the Bach Centre (near Oxford, England) from a visit earlier on this year… Come join me!

• • •My journey through the senses• • •

taste:: Crisp apples and sweet Medjool datessmell:: cedar and piñon pine needles heady in my burnertouch:: paint marks from fingertips and brush-strokes on papersee:: Surviving Picassohear:: Justin Timberlake on headphones while painingthink:: the season is beautiful and I'm enjoying a ray of sunshinefeel:: very quietread:: notes on story plottingintuit:: Nightfall just up ahead